The Avengers: Betting On You
by Cassandra S. Fisher
Summary: Natasha plans on taking a job, but the job requires her to sever all links from her life. Will Natasha be able to say good-bye to her old life to start a new life? Or will a certain someone make her change her mind about her decision? *WIP*
1. Chapter 1

**_Betting On You_**

Natasha set the suitcase on her bed, which she had since she was five. She headed to the bathroom. It had been a long drive from work. All she wanted was a hot shower and some rest. As soon as she opened the door she jumped back.

There was a naked man who had just stepped out of the shower. Her first reaction was to run, but in the first few moments there was something familiar about the man, something very familiar.

"Clint,"

He turned around and grinned, not caring if she saw him naked or not.

"Nat,"

"What are you doing here?"

"I am here on vacation. What are you doing here,"

"Just figuring out my life. Your parents were kind enough to let me stay here,"

"Why are you in my room to be exact,"

"Didn't want to use your parents bathroom and the other bathroom is being renovated. I thought it was best to use yours." Clint said, as he watched her. Natasha realized he stood there with nothing to cover him.

Natasha grabbed a towel and threw it at him. Clint caught the towel and he wrapped it around his waist. The look on her face told him she wasn't pleased with him.

"Finish up and get out of my room," Nat said, as she went back into her room and unpacked her bag. Natasha felt Clint's eyes on her.

"What?"

"I missed you,"

"Don't,"

"Why not?"

"Because I am going through it again,"

"Going through what again?" Clint asked her. He really didn't know exactly what had happened between them.

They were happy together and engaged. One day out of the blue for him, she gave the ring back and cut him out of her life. It has been three years since they seen one another. He never did find out what had happen between them.

Clint did stay away, it wasn't until he fell on hard times did he ask for help. Right now he was going through a rough time. His family died in a car accident recently. He needed to stay strong, he had a support system back then, but she left him. So he really had no support system.

It wasn't like he had someone he trusted enough to tell them everything going on with him. He did have a friend, but she only just scraped the top of his life. It was hard for Clint to trust someone fully with his life story. For him it was very hard to say what was on his mind exactly. When he did tell any one of his life, he edited out a lot of things when telling them about himself.

Natasha who left him, it was a reality check for him. He went on living, but he vowed he was going to get her back. There wasn't anything he wouldn't do to get her back.

"I am sure you know what you've done," Natasha said, as she kept her back to Clint. He was confused. He had no idea what Natasha was going on about, but he was going to find out. Right now he knew he needed to let her cool down.

"I'll be in the guest room," Clint told her. There wasn't much he could do right now. Clint walked out of the room and to the guest bedroom.

Clint remembered all the time he had with Natasha before what ever took her from him. He really did want to know what had set off the chain of event, which tore her from him. He had to admit Natasha did look beautiful after not seeing her for three years.

Clint entered the guest room and sighed. He grabbed the clean pair of underwear, which sat on the bed and put it on. He lay back on the bed. He ran his hands over his face. Things were tough for him now. He knew bottling it up wasn't a good idea. Back in the day Natasha was the one he talked to, but he lost her the day she gave back her engagement ring to him.

Natasha noticed Clint had left the room. She let out a breath, which she didn't know she held. To see him again after all these years, she didn't know what to do. The fact she was still in love with him, made matters worse. To tear her self away from him all those years ago cut her deeply. There wasn't anything she wouldn't do for Clint.

When she found out, she knew nothing would be the same again. Natasha did not realized until the day when she followed him. She saw him meet with the most dangerous gang in their town; it was when she realized it wasn't a good thing to be around Clint, even if she did love him. Natasha watched as he beat someone up badly. All hope and dreams of Clint and herself being together was shattered at that very moment. Natasha wanted to keep her family safe. The next day she gave the engagement ring back and told Clint to stay away from her family. Of course somehow he didn't heed her warning, because he was here now.

She had to admit Clint did look good after three years of not seeing each other. When Natasha was situated then she would go talk to her parents. Natasha would see exactly what was going on. Of course you never knew when the enemies would show up, so Natasha had he gear from work with her. It was now tuck safely under her bed, in a black briefcase.

Clint wasn't the guy she meet in high school, he changed and not for the better. Clint joined a gang; his gang had beaten her older brother to death. Of course, she was sure it wasn't the real story. One of these days she would find out the real story. For what happened it was one of those things she would never forgive. Her brother was a good person and he would never associate himself with a gang. She had a feeling Clint had lure her brother into being a part of a scheme or something, it went wrong and her older brother paid the price.

Natasha shut her door and locked it, so no one could enter her room unannounced. She turned on the hot water and stepped in. She let the hot water cascade off her body. She knew she had to wash up quickly. If she let her self relax she would end up remember her time with Clint. All her time with Clint wasn't bad, but right now it wasn't something she wanted to reminisce over. Natasha finished her shower and cleaned her tub out. She did this to keep her bathroom clean, so when she had to use it next time there wasn't a problem with the tub now being clean.

It almost took her, the memories of back in the day when she and Clint were happy. Before any more memories could surface she shook her head. It didn't take her long to clean up. The grumble from her stomach reminded her she hadn't eaten since last night.

She made her way down to the kitchen. Her father sat at the kitchen table in his hand was the newspaper. Her mother was chopping celery; it was going to be in the stew. Natasha smiled to herself, her parents were happy. Which meant she was happy.

"Hey," Natasha said, her father looked up at her. Natasha moved over to her father side and gave him a kiss on the forehead.

"Hello sweetheart. How is everything?" Mr. Romanoff said.

"Everything is going well." Natasha said, as her father gave her a hug. When he let go she made her way over to her mother and gave her a kiss on the cheek.

"Hey mom,"

"There are fruit bars in the cupboard. If you're hungry,"

Her mother didn't surprise her one bit, Natasha knew her mother knew her well.

"Thanks." Natasha said.

She went over to the cupboard and got one of the bars out to eat. She opened the fruit bar wrapper and went to the table and sat down so she could eat it. Natasha swallowed the food in her mouth.

"So when were you two going to tell me about Clint," Natasha said. There was a brief pause in what her parents were doing. Then they went back doing what they were doing.

"He needed a little help and we couldn't turn him away," Mrs. Romanoff told her. Natasha wondered exactly what was going on to have Clint here at her home. There wasn't any time for her to ask any question about why he was there. Clint walked into the kitchen.

"Mrs. Romanoff is there anything I can do to help?" Clint asked. Mrs. Romanoff looked at him.

"Sure. You can help cut the carrots," Mrs. Romanoff said. They watched Clint washed his hand, and then went to get the cutting board and knife. He set up next to Mrs. Romanoff. Clint grabbed the carrots and he began to cut the carrots. Natasha just watched them work. Natasha sat there quietly, she just watched him. There was something about Clint; she couldn't put her finger on it at the moment.

The doorbell rang.

"I'll get it," Natasha said, as she stood up. Natasha caught Clint's eyes. The thing was she couldn't read them. Now it started to unnerve her. Natasha moved to the door and opened it.

There stood her good friend Pepper Potts. Natasha hasn't even been home for an hour and her good friend knew she was there. Natasha wondered how Pepper knew she was home.

"Natasha, what are you doing here?" Pepper asked her.

"Pepper, I am home for a little while. What are you doing here?" Natasha asked.

"I am here to see Clint," Pepper said, as she watched her friend's reaction as she said his name. Natasha froze for a brief second, but then she acted fine.

"Why are you here to see Clint?"

"It's personal. I can't say anything. It's between Clint and I." Pepper told her. Natasha knew she was right. Natasha gave up any right to know about Clint's well being when she returned the engagement ring to him.

"Okay, he's in the kitchen with my parents," Natasha said, as she moved aside so Pepper could enter. Pepper entered and head back to the kitchen. It might be a good idea to leave the house for a while. Right now, she needed to think.

"Hey, mom I am going out for a bit. I will be in a bit," Natasha called over her shoulder. It took a moment before she heard her mother's answer.

"Okay, dear. Dinner going to be in a couple of hours." Mrs. Romanoff said. Natasha closed the door. Then she started to walk.

Natasha let her feet do the walking. When she looked up she found herself at the park where Clint and herself played. Natasha sat down on one of the swings. She moved it back and forth a bit. Her life was dangerous and she wasn't going to bring anyone else into her life, especially Clint. It was time to let Clint go. All her thoughts of him had to be pushed back. She had a job to do. Natasha had let go of her old life, to start her new life.

Everyone she knew was going to miss her, but it had to be done. In her field she was going to nothing to connect with. In the final process all her emotions were going to be wiped away, meaning all her connection to people she knew and love would be gone.

Everything went through her mind as she just sat there. A beep from her watch told her it was time to get back home for dinner. Natasha wasn't sure how she was going to handle dinner. The table in the kitchen was small and had enough room to sit four people at it. One way or another, she was going to be near Clint.

Natasha made it back to her house without any problem. When she entered the house, the smell of the food brought her to the kitchen. Before she reached the kitchen there were three other voices along with her parents and Clint. Pepper's voice wasn't on of them. She wondered who was there.


	2. Chapter 2

There were six people who stood in the kitchen area. When she saw the three other people in her kitchen she froze just for a second. This wasn't good. Right now the best thing she had for her was to pretend she didn't know the three guests in front of her.

"Natasha dear, good your home. We have guest for dinner." Mrs. Romanoff said. Natasha saw the one on the middle he was tall and lean and had a scar on his left cheek. Natasha knew him as Anthony McGill, he was one of the top criminals and her agency wanted him dead. Now he was in her court so to speak. When she had a moment she would have to report in. She mentally sighed to herself.

_'There goes my vacation,'_ Natasha thought to herself.

The man on McGill left side was a heavyset man with spectacles. The spectacles were somewhat darken. She couldn't see his eyes; there was something with those shades made her uneasy. She had intel on him. Charles Farnsworth was the man on McGill right side. The man was tiny, but dangerous. Well that what her Intel told her.

"Okay. Are we going to grab the other table?" Natasha asked, not before she saw the other table was already in place. There were eight places set out for each of them. The food was set on the table. Now Tasha wanted to protect her family and Clint. She needed to put herself in between the bad guys and Clint and her parents.

After a few moments there were all seated around the table. Clint had pulled out her chair. When she sat down in her chair, her eyes rested on the three new guests. Her chair was scooted in. Clint noticed something was up with Natasha, but he didn't say anything. Clint went to the seat next to her. Natasha's father sat on the other side of him.

"Can I ask exactly what you guys are here for?" Natasha asked quietly, as she looked at McGill. McGill looked at her cautiously.

"We are going to hire Clint. We could use his skill, in a few issues," McGill said. Natasha could see from the corner of her eyes, he gave her a look. She couldn't worry about his look. Her main focus was McGill. Of course, she kept her guards up.

"What exactly what would he be doing?" Natasha asked.

"Well, he would be my personal guard," McGill said, as he took a bit of the stew.

"When will I start work?" Clint asked casually. McGill swallow the food in his mouth.

Then he looked over at Clint.

"You can start working immediately, if you would like," McGill said.

"Thank you, sir." Clint said.

"We can have you do a test run tonight if you would like," McGill said, as he eyed Natasha to see her reaction. Natasha could feel McGill's eyes on her so she didn't do anything, which gave her away. His eyes were on her also, but she just took a bite of her food like nothing was happening.

McGill continued eating as well as the other two with him. Clint knew there was something was wrong with Natasha, but he couldn't say anything about it right at this time. His dinner was really good.

"This is delicious," Clint said as he looked at Mrs. Romanoff.

"Thank you dear, are you going to take the test run?" Mrs. Romanoff asked.

"Yes, I think I will." Clint said.

"Good, Good…when dinner is done we will start you training,"

"Yes sir,"

Natasha didn't like Clint leaving with McGill, but she couldn't say anything or it would blow her cover. She continued to eat and she listened to conversation. Natasha was quiet the rest of the conversation. They soon finished eating.

"I have enjoyed this meal. Thank you for the dinner," McGill said, as they headed out. Clint went to his room and grabbed his jacket. Then he followed them out the door.

Mrs. Romanoff started to clear the table. Natasha got the dishwater ready to be used. When the water was ready she started to wash them. There were a few moments before her mother said anything.

"Natasha dear, you were quiet during dinner tonight. Is anything wrong?"

"No, everything was fine,"

"I am here if you want to talk about anything,"

Natasha was silent for a moment. This was a good of a time as any to find out about Clint.

"I am just wondering about Clint, how long was he here?"

"He has been here for a couple of day,"

"Okay, so how long has he been in contact with you guys,"

"He hasn't been in contact with us. We haven't heard from him in three years. With what happened with his family it brought him to us,"

"What happened to his family?"

"His family was killed in a car accident a week ago,"

Natasha was shocked at the news; he must be going through a hard time. He had listened to her. Clint actually had stayed away, but losing his first family, he went to his second family for help. Natasha couldn't fault him for that, but she wasn't helping the matter any. Natasha continue to wash the dishes, she was quiet the whole time.

"Oh," Natasha said.

"You okay?"

"I am good mother. I don't know my emotions are all over the place,"

"You still love him,"

"Yes, I do."

"Why did you leave him,"

"I can't say. I am not going to put you guys through the pain, I want to find out the truth first." Natasha said, as she made a decision to find out the truth for herself first before she said anything to her parents.

"It doesn't matter what it is we want to know about it,"

"I know, but I want to make sure I get my fact straight first before telling you guys." Natasha said, as glanced away for a second. She wasn't sure why, but she was going to find out the truth.

"Okay, let's finish the dishes."

Natasha and Mrs. Romanoff finished the dishes. They did talk about other things. Natasha knew she had to call her boss soon. Once the dishes were done, she told her parents she was tired and was going to lay down. When she got to her room she immediately went to the briefcase and opened it.

The earwig she put in her right ear and the waited a second then it came to life.

"Agent 82, we didn't expect you to contact us on your vacation before you joined us for good," The voice on the other end of the earwig said.

"Sir, I have confirmation of McGill,"

"Where did you see him at, Agent?"

"I saw him at my home,"

"Why was he there?"

"He was recruiting someone I know to work for him."

"Who did he recruit?"

"Clinton Francis Barton,"

"Is he going to be a problem?"

"No sir, if he does I will take care of him." Natasha said. Of course she wasn't going to kill him. She could never kill Clint. If she did kill him, then she would follow him. For the fact if Clint dies, then for her there wasn't anything keeping her there to stay. Her parents would understand. Her life without Clint it was no life at all.

"Good, we want McGill brought in for questioning,"

"Yes sir." Natasha replied. The earwig went dead. She took the earwig out and put it back in the briefcase. Her gun she placed under the pillow on her bed. She was going to protect her family. Natasha considered Clint her family as well. Even through they weren't talking to one another. She did miss him a lot.

Clint was not sure where McGill was taken him, but he knew he needed to have him become an informant for S.H.I.E.L.D. He had been an agent of S.H.I.E.L.D. since he was nineteen. They had recruited him due to his archery skill. Everything was going well, that was until Natasha broke up with him. He mentally shook his head. He needed to focus on the mission. He needed to bring in McGill.

If he asked him to kill others then he would have to do it, if he didn't he would blow his cover. The other mission he had was to bring down the organization called OhPant. They were more into killing anything which they thought weren't right. It wasn't a good thing; a few of S.H.I.E.L.D. mission had been at a stand still because of them. They had to be stopped. Clint was going to be the one to stop them.

"Clint we need you to do a few jobs for us." McGill said.

"What sort of job?" Clint asked.

"We needed to you kill a few people,"

"Who to be exact?"

McGill handed him a folder. Clint took it and opened it. When he saw the first picture his mouth went dry.

"Can I asked why you want this person killed?" Clint asked.

"We want her killed because….


	3. Chapter 3

"We want her killed because she is an agent of an organization we needed to rid our selves of," McGill said.

"What organization is that sir?" Clint asked, he hoped he wasn't about to say his organization he worked for. If he did, he was sure it was a test for him; he was not going to react to it. That was if it was his organization.

"OhPant. They have been thorns in our side for a while now. They needed to be dealt with,"

"What if we could get her to defect to our side?" Clint said thoughtfully. McGill looked over at him suspiciously.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean if we could get her on our side, I think we could do more work in less time." Clint said. McGill thought for a moment. There was no way Clint would take the target they wanted to out.

"I want you to bring her in. If she doesn't come in then you will eliminate her. Do you understand?"

"Yes sir,"

"Now you will take out the others in the file." McGill said, as he watched Clint look at the rest of the photo in the files. It was two photo he really didn't want to kill them, but he had to. "I am giving you twenty- four hours to kill these two people and get Miss Romanoff on our side."

"Yes, sir." Clint said, as he moved over to the door.

"Where do you think you are going?"

"I am going to do what you tell me to do?"

"Okay, but I need you to get it done now."

Clint was out the door and he headed back to the Romanoff home. His mind was going over the information Natasha was and agent of the organization he was going to shut down. Clint made his way to the park where he and Natasha had played. He sat down on the swing. He looked out into the night. There were things he needed to get out in the open. He needed to sort things out with Natasha first.

He knew it would be good to go and get started on the job McGill gave him. He had been able can kill since he was younger. He kept sane with Natasha's help. Three years ago his sanity was pushed to the edge. He was lucky enough not to go over the edge. Just the thought of Natasha had kept him from going over the edge. He wanted his safety net back, no it was more like he needed his safety net.

It was time to get to business. Clint got up from the swing and headed back to the house. He made it to the house without any incident. He went to his room, and took off his leather jacket and hung it up in the closet. He felt her present near him. He took a breath before turning around.

She was standing in the doorway. She was wearing white socks and black sweatpants. The thing that got him was, she wore his sweatshirt. Just seeing her in his sweatshirt made him think he wanted to have her in his arm right now. All he knew was she wasn't happy with him and it wouldn't be easy to re earn her trust.

"How are you?" Natasha asked.

"I am doing okay. How are you?"

"I am doing all right. Just heard about your family."

"Oh…."

"I talked to my mother and I found out you did stay away. I am not going to apology for what I did three years ago."

"I am sorry for anything I did to do to upset you."

"I want an explanation for what you did." Natasha demanded.

"What exactly did I do to lose you?"

"Meet and joined the most dangerous gang in the town. Then you go and beat someone close to death."

"You followed me," Clint stated.

"Yes. You dragged my brother into one of the gang operation then you got him killed. I want to know why?" Natasha asked. Clint knew why he lost her, he had to tell her the truth. The thing was it was going to blow his cover. He knew Natasha would need time digest the information.

"Natasha what I am about to tell you is going to probably get me in major trouble."

"What do you mean?" Natasha asked. She could tell Clint was bogged down with a lot of things. She didn't know exactly what he was bogged down with. Just the look on his face Natasha could tell everything wasn't right with him.

"My boss at my job will probably assign me to desk duty for this. I just need to get this off my chest."

"What are you talking about, you don't have a job." Natasha stated.

"Yes, I did have a job since I was a junior in high school."

"What!" Natasha exclaimed, she heard a buzz it was low enough so Clint couldn't hear it, but she could. She knew there was a bug on Clint. Apparently he didn't know.

"Your brother was my partner."

"He worked as a guard for New Tech Guardian." Natasha claimed.

"No, he was -" Clint started, as Natasha placed her index finger on her Clint's lips to stopped him from talking. Natasha moved over to her radio and turned it on. She turned it up just a bit. She walked over to him and started to pat him down. Clint raised an eyebrow. Natasha mouthed bug to him.

When Natasha found the bug she took it off of Clint shirt and dropped it to the ground then she stomped on it. When the buzz went away she knew the room was cleared of bugs. Natasha turned the radio off.

"What was that about?"

"You were bugged." Natasha told him.

"How did you know?"

"A high pitch sound I can hear."

"High pitches still bother you?" Clint asked her. She nodded her head. It started to feel normal between them.

"Exactly who is your boss?"

"Strategic Hazard Intervention Espionage Logistics Directorate or S.H.I.E.L.D. for short."

Natasha knew of S.H.I.E.L.D. form her bosses. The department had cause her organization trouble. She couldn't believe he was her enemy. Natasha didn't have her gun with her. Now she was more cautious with Clint. He didn't seem to be on alert with her.

"You worked for the organization OhPant. I've been sent to take down the organization OhPant and take down McGill."

"So did McGill sent you to kill me?"

"Yes, but I changed his mind. I asked him to let me turn you to his side."

"Did S.H.I.E.L.D. send you to kill me?"

"No, they sent me to close down OhPant." Clint told her honestly.

Natasha studied him carefully. It took her a second to realized he was telling her the truth.

"Okay,"

Natasha and Clint stood there and looked at each other. Natasha moved towards him and then their lips met. Natasha wrapped her arm around his neck, almost immediately Clint's arms wrapped around her waist.

* * *

Charles Farnsworth took off the headphones he had on. The bug he had put on Clint was just disable.

_'Damn,"_ Charles thought to himself. He knew there was something about him that he didn't like. Now he would never figure out exactly why he did not like Clint. He defiantly didn't trust him.


End file.
